Norwell teen turns entreprenuer

Wednesday

Aug 6, 2014 at 2:47 PMAug 6, 2014 at 7:00 PM

Summer job hunting inspired one local teenager to start her own business

Finding work as a pre-teen in Norwell can be tough. At 13, Katie Maescher was technically too young to work when she first started hunting for a summer job last year. But instead of resigning herself to a summer vacation of boredom, she started brainstorming.

Initially she thought babysitting might be a good way to earn some extra cash, but she didn’t have any experience or clients.

“I wasn’t doing much in the summer and my mom asked me what I might want to do,” Katie said. “She said ‘Try to get job, work for me or create a new business.’ I thought of some ideas and iPhone cases just kind of came to me.”

The business idea was to create affordable, durable and –of course – trendy cell phone cases with interchangeable template designs. Katie wanted to create cases that would allow herself and her peers to shake up the designs without having to dig to deep into the piggy bank – after all, most kids her age can’t get part-time jobs until they’re 16.

From that idea, the support of her parents and about $1,000 in seed money, Cases by Kate was born.

They order the rubber color bumpers and clear-backed cases from a third party source, but the all the designs, printing, laminating and trimming is customized and produced individually in the Maescher home.

A single case with your choice of template can be purchased for $14. Additional template designs cost $5 each. More than 200 template designs are available for purchase online at www.casesbykate.com.

New to the business world, Katie took a grassroots approach to marketing when she first started her business in May 2013.

“At first I took cases to school to hand out to my friends for free,” Katie said. “Then I started doing sponsoring on Instagram, which has been absolutely huge for us.”

In sponsoring, Cases by Kate reaches out to a group on Instagram with 5,000 or 10,000 followers and then send them free cases. In turn, the group publicizes the cases and talks about them to their followers, bringing recognition to Katie’s cases.

“I learned from other companies that sponsoring is really key,” said Katie.

Cases by Kate is truly a family-run business, with Katie, Aimee and dad Peter all assuming different roles to make the business work. Katie’s job is research and development.

At 14, Katie knows the latest trends. She knows what her friends will like and then she works with her mom Aimee, a freelance graphic designer, to turn the designs into reality.

Besides aesthetics, Katie’s research and development on social media is a major contribution to the business’ current success.

Business acumen clearly comes naturally to the 14-year-old soon-to-be high school freshman.

She set up six social media accounts, using Instagram sponsorships to spread the word about her products. Connecting via social media, Katie has teamed up with another teenaged business owner, expanding her and her partner’s clientele and her reach onto each other’s web platforms.

She’s even spreading her designs, as she partnered with another company that purchases her designs and prints them on products ranging from duvet covers to throw pillows – all the while kicking back a portion of the profits.

Fast-forward 14 months and Katie’s success is measureable. She has sold more than 800 cell phone cases worldwide and has more than 20,000 followers on Instagram.

“I think it’s been good because not lot of people I know have jobs yet,” Katie said. “It’s taught me a lot about business.”

Running the business has taught her about profits, losses, expenses, overhead, budgeting and customer relations, she said.

“It’s been a learning process,” Aimee said. “We listen to people and what they like and the feedback has generally been amazing. We’ve had one return and it was because the phone wouldn’t fit into the woman’s speaker charger at home.”

Looking toward the future, neither Katie nor Aimee can really believe the success they have had in such a short period of time.

In the past few months, Katie has sold her cases at three festivals across the South Shore, including Scituate Heritage Days, where she sold more than 200 cases, and the James Library Holiday Festival, where she sold more than 100 cases.

The next step, will be to get the cases into brick and mortar stores to expand their sales locally.

“I think eventually it will be creating a store, and on Instagram, where we’re pretty big, I want to hit 100,000 followers and get the business booming through social media even more.”

Check out www.casesbykate.com and follow them on Instagram @casesbykate for monthly giveaways and to paruse hundreds of designs.

Follow editor Erin Tiernan on Twitter @ErinTiernan.

Normal
0
The custom-designed interchangeable templates cost just $5 each and take seconds to change out.